Wikis and Blogs

Wikis

Wiki is in Ward's original description:

The simplest online database that could possibly work.

Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly.

Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.

Like many simple concepts, "open editing" has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users.

Historical Note. The first ever wiki site was created for the Portland Pattern Repository in 1995. That site now hosts tens of thousands of pages.

Uses for Wikis:

• Class projects
• Research projects
• Collaboration
• Collection of information

Examples on campus:

Language Wiki--http://langs.brynmawr.edu/wiki/index.php

Computer Science Wiki--http://wiki.cs.brynmawr.edu/

Wikis that provide good infomation:

The Wikipedia--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Blogs

weblog, or simply a blog, is a web application which contains periodic, reverse chronologically ordered posts on a common webpage. Such a web site would typically be accessible to any Internet user.

Blogs run from individual diaries to arms of political campaigns, media programs and corporations, and from one occasional author to having large communities of writers. The totality of weblogs or blog-related webs is usually called theblogosphere.

The format of weblogs varies, from simple bullet lists of hyperlinks, to article summaries with user-provided comments and ratings. Individual weblog entries are almost always date and time-stamped, with the newest post at the top of the page. Because links are so important to weblogs, most blogs have a way of archiving older entries and generating a static address for individual entries; this static link is referred to as a permalink. The latest headlines, with hyperlinks and summaries, are offered in weblogs in the RSS XML-format, to be read with a RSS feedreader.

A weblog is often run through a content management system or CMS.

Sites for creating your own blog

·  Pitas-http://www.pitas.com

·  Blog.com-http://ww.blog.com

·  Blogger—http://www.blogger.com

·  LiveJournal - http://www.livejournal.com

·  Xanga-http://www.xanga.com

Bryn Mawr is experimenting with software for blogging.  Currently, we have one installed at http://langs.brynmawr.edu/blog.  We’re testing some other options.

(Content from the Wikipedia—Blogs)

RSS Feeds

These are related to blogs, since most blogs produce them. It stands for Really Simple Syndication.  RSS can be understood as a web syndication protocol that is primarily used by news websites and weblogs. RSS allows a web developer to publish content on their website in a format that a computer program can easily understand and digest. This allows users to easily repackage the content on their own websites or blogs, or privately on their own computers.

You can read rss feeds using an aggregator.  There’s one included in Blackboard.  To enable it:

• From your home page, click the Contents button in the upper right-hand corner.
• Scroll down to find the News option and check the box.
• To choose which feeds you receive, click the pencil icon in the News box on your home page.
• Then check the boxes for the items you want to see.

There are online aggregators and ones that you download onto your computer.  Many of the online versions also have lists of feeds to choose from—usually searchable.

Here are a few options:

Bloglines-http://www.bloglines.com

My Yahoo (as part of its portal)—http://my.yahoo.com

A More Comprehensive List -- http://www.hebig.org/blogs/archives/main/000877.php

Instant Messaging

Synchronous communication over the internet

Apple includes iChat—compatible with AOL instant messenger (AIM), can also do audio and video conferencing.

AOL Instant messenger—Available for Mac, PC, Linux, cellphones, pdas  (http://www.aim.com/)

Yahoo messenger--http://messenger.yahoo.com/

MSN messenger (http://messenger.msn.com)

Trillian—compatible with AIM, Yahoo, MSN

• review at CNET (http://reviews.cnet.com/Trillian_Pro_2_012/4505-9237_7-30974758-2.html?tag=tab)
• get the software (http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/)